Dirty thirty
The SR500 Club rally this year will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the engine which was eventually adapted to power the road-oriented SR.Yamaha's XT500 was launched in 1976 and its powerplant was modified in 1978 to make it more suitable for on-road work. Despite its popularity in other markets (particularly Germany and Japan), the SR500 was only available officially in Australia between 1978 and 1982.
The 100-strong SR500 Club has helped keep many of them on the road. Up to 50 SR500s will be on display at the club's annual rally at Bethanga (near Albury on the Vic/NSW border) over the weekend of November 17 - 19.
While some stockers still exist, many SR500s have become heavily modified as cafe-racers with performance Yamaha could never have imagined.
The SR500 Club claims its rally is the largest gathering of SR500s in the southern hemisphere but?a ll makes and models are welcome.
(Pic: Canberra-based Stu Ross' English-framed DCM special shows how far you can go down the cafe-racer path using Yamaha XT/SR engines.)
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